


It's five to twelve

by huffletiika



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Elaborated plan to kiss your best friend at midnight, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Gendry Waters is a Baratheon, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, New Year's Eve, Pining for your best friend, This is a idea I had long ago and only now get to write, what could go wrong?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:35:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huffletiika/pseuds/huffletiika
Summary: There's a song we always put in my country when it's five minutes before midnight that's called "Faltan cinco pa' las doce" that literally translates "It's five to twelve" which is exactly five minutes long. So, when it's over, it's time to do the countdown from ten to cero. The song is about using those last five minutes to look for the people you care the most (in this song is the singer's mother) to give them a hug.This gave me the idea of this: a five chapters' long fic, with each chapter being published the five days before the new year... the last one being published in New Year's Eve, and the whole story going around the last five minutes before midnight, as Arya had decided that she had to do something very drastic (a.k.a. kissing her best friend at midnight) after learning that she had fallen for him, as to know if he felt the same way about her.Huge thank you to Weltverbessererin for being my beta in this.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 83
Kudos: 124





	1. Five

It's five minutes to midnight.

In five minutes that year would end and Arya was on a mission, a mission of vital importance, one that will define many things in her life going forward.

In five minutes, she must kiss Gendry.

Gendry is her best friend, the only person she would trust with her life, the only one who has been there through the good and the bad, and who is capable of making her forget her insecurities with just a few words and a smile.

The two met when she was only eleven and he was fifteen.

At that time, she had temporarily moved with her father and sister to King's Landing, because Robert Baratheon had asked Ned to be his advisor in the process of restructuring his family's company, which had fallen into decline after the mismanagement of the previous administrator, a dude called Petyr Baelish, who upon being caught was sent to jail for tax evasion and illicit enrichment.

Gendry was Robert's eldest son, the product of a drunken night during his college years, of which he had to take care after his mother died of cancer when he was eleven years old, since it would be very bad publicity for him and for his company if he let his son (of which he knew quite well) end up in the system.

At first, she didn't like him, he was always too quiet, too surly, more focused on his camera than on socializing. For the first few months that she lived in King's Landing, she tried to chat with him, and all she got was to get him to leave her talking to herself, and that bothered her.

But then one night during a dinner invitation to the Baratheon house, her sister and Joffrey Baratheon started teasing her, telling her that she was ugly and that she was never going to get someone to love her for it, going so far as to call her Arya Horse-face. She had asked them to stop, to leave her alone, but they went on and on until Gendry appeared behind his half-brother, with his brow furrowed and arms crossed, telling him that if he didn't stop he was going to make him sing with his fists.

Both his brother and her sister left immediately, the former telling him that he was going to tell his mother that he had threatened him, but Gendry ignored him and instead asked if Arya was okay.

Since then they had become inseparable, ‘thick as thieves’ her father would say, spending as much time as they could together, which made it even harder when a couple of years later the Starks returned to Winterfell after Ned finished his task at bringing back Baratheon Enterprises back from the death.

After that, years went by without them seeing each other, but their friendship continued through long phone calls (which always got her in trouble) and text messages.

They told each other everything.

He told her about Robert's divorce from Cersei after learning that Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen weren't really his, and how all of the man's expectations (that were previously placed on his supposed first-born son with his now ex-wife) had fallen on him, so instead of going to the School of Visual Arts, as he had planned, Gendry would have to enroll in Business School… and he hated that, but he did not dare to tell his father, for fear of causing him a second cardiac arrest.

The first was when he received the paternity tests.

She told him about her brother Bran's riding accident, after which he had lost the function of his legs, and about the many fights she had with her mother for not behaving like a 'lady' her age. She told him how much she missed her cousin, who had enlisted in the navy and was stationed at the Eastwatch base, and about her dream of going to study dance in Braavos with the House of Black and White, an academy from which several world-renowned dancers had emerged.

She had done it, she had entered said academy, but once inside she had realized that their methods were anything but safe, so after calling her father crying in the middle of the night, she had returned home.

And that's how she returned to King's Landing, managing to enter one of the most exclusive arts academies in Westeros, and getting to be in the same building with her best friend who, thanks to his cousin’s advice, had been able to speak with his father and explain to him that he wanted to pursue photography instead of business.

Robert had taken it better than he had thought.

Now, she had been there for a year and a half, and her routine consists of attending her classes during the day, and then meeting Gendry (in his apartment or hers, depending on their roommates’ presence or willingness to have visitors), to watch movies, play video games or simply chat, until it was time for everyone to go to sleep.

It has been the best year and a half of her life.

But, here’s the thing, she and Gendry were no longer eleven and fifteen years old, and therefore some things had changed, or at least on her side.

At first, she didn't realize she was beginning to feel something else.

They were friends, BEST friends, but suddenly she started to gawk at him every time he walked around without a shirt... something that, in her opinion, he loved doing way too much lately. Then, it was the contact of their skins sending electric jolts throughout her whole body while, back then, they could even wrestle like free-folk kids in the Baratheon’s garden and she would feel nothing.

Nothing at all.

Well, not anymore.

And then, there was his smell! She had become completely addicted to it, searching it on the cushions of her sofa after they would have spent the whole afternoon watching movies and he had to leave, or stealing his shirts to use as pajamas and sleep surrounded by his scent, making it look like it was by mistake.

She had denied it to herself, saying that she simply had her hormones raging from the lack of sex, but the times she went out with other people she kept imagining being with Gendry instead, him being the one kissing her, and then she had no choice but to accept it: she was madly in love with her best friend.

So, what to do now?

She didn’t know.

She had been observing him since then, trying to see if there was even the slightest chance that he felt the same way about her, asking Dani, her roommate, what she thought about her chances, and getting (after ten minutes of ‘I knew it!’) a full read about why she thought her feelings were reciprocated, which included the fact that just the week before he had dropped out of one of his classes to help her fix a water leak in their place.

And that's how she concluded that the only way to know for sure was by doing something about it, something drastic, and so she came up with a plan: she would kiss him at the twelve chimes of the new year, that way… if she felt in that kiss that he did not reciprocate her feelings, she would joke and tell him that she had only done it so that they could both kiss someone at midnight.

And then, when she was alone in her flat, she would take care of drowning her sorrow in an ice cream bucket.

It was five minutes to twelve.

She had stayed in King's Landing instead of traveling to Winterfell for the holidays, under the excuse that she was going to be part of Professor Forell's workshop in early January, and therefore had been invited to the party that Renly Baratheon organized for every New Year's Eve, where a large number of the city's Elite got reunited to do the countdown.

Gendry hadn't wanted to go at first, saying they might as well celebrate it in his apartment, but she had convinced him by telling him that Shireen and other people that he liked would be there.

And now it was five minutes to twelve, and as she stood next to him looking at the clock, her nerves were beginning to take over.

Could she kiss him at midnight?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter, there are more to come ;)!


	2. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ned f**king Dayne.

Arya sighed as she watched Gendry speak with Shireen, the weight of what she had planned to do heavy on her chest as her sight went to the clock and then back to the pair of Baratheon cousins.

Four minutes.

She wanted to tell him to go somewhere else, perhaps to one of the secluded terraces with the excuse of wanting to have a better look of the fireworks without anyone blocking her view, as she wasn’t very keen of the prospect of kissing him there in front of everyone and become the joke of the season after her best friend rejected her.

“Arya Stark, long time no seeing you,” a male voice on her left took her out of her thoughts, and she couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her lips as she saw an old friend.

“Edric, long time indeed,” she said, as she embraced him.

“How many times should I ask you to call me Ned?” he asked, amused, and she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, but you know my dad’s also called Ned, so it is just way too weird to call you the same way,” she replied, the smirk not leaving her lips. “Are you here with your family?” she asked, and he nodded his head, pointing at a couple who were a few steps apart.

“I’m here with my aunt and her husband,” he told her. “The rest of my family went to spend the Holidays in Lys, but I wasn’t in the mood to go. Besides, come January I’m about to start working for Beric in his company, so I might as well get used to living in the big city.”

“Well, I should warn you… it smells pretty bad sometimes, but you get used to it,” she half-joked, as it actually smelled poorly sometimes, and her friend laughed.

“Maybe, you can show me around,” he suggested.

But, before she could reply, she felt a hand on her back, and looked to her right to see that Gendry was now standing next to her, his cousin walking away.

“Dayne,” he greeted the blond, who nodded in response.

“Baratheon.”

There were a couple seconds of both men silently staring at each other.

Awkward.

“Why did Shireen leave?” she asked her best friend, and he turned to look at her, his bright blue eyes sending shivers all over her skin.

“She wanted to be next to Payne during the countdown,” he commented, raising his eyebrows in an amused expression, and she chuckled.

“Shireen and Podrick? Who would have thought?” she replied, and the sound of Edric clearing his throat reminded her that her friend was still in front of them. “Oh, I’m very sorry we left you out of the conversation,” she apologized, and she could have sworn she heard Gendry whisper “I’m not” under his breath.

She wouldn’t be surprised, actually, as she was aware of Gendry’s dislike towards the Starfall boy, which had been there from the very beginning of their acquaintance, although she wasn't sure what that was due to.

They had met a couple months after she had moved back to King’s Landing, during some party that a mutual friend had orchestrated, to which he had attended as he was in town celebrating his aunt’s wedding, and they had had so much in common that they had spent the whole night talking.

In fact, he mentioned to her that his father had dated one of his aunts before he met her mother.

That was weird to know.

She had also gone out with him once, as friends of course, since she had promised to take him to her favorite Braavosi restaurant, and she was a woman of her word. Which, of course, Gendry didn’t like at all, bringing out his sullen side for the next week, and leaving every time she started talking to him about her friend, so she stopped doing it. Maybe he thought she wanted to replace him as her best friend, she thought, which in her opinion was completely ridiculous.

“Don’t worry about that,” Edric replied, and she noticed that he gave a weird look to Gendry before looking back at her. “I was wondering if you would like to be next to me during the countdown?”

Oh…

_Oh._

Did she hear Gendry groan?

“That’s- erm, really…” she didn't know how to politely decline his offer without saying that she actually wanted to stay by Gendry's side, so that he wouldn't realize what she planned to do at midnight. “I think you should look for someone else to do the countdown with,” she ended up saying, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed one of the corners of her best friend's lips rising.

“I see,” Edric looked at them both, then nodded. “So, guess I must go… have a happy new year, you two,” he concluded, and walked towards where the greatest concentration of people was.

Arya sighed.

Ok, so now she would ask Gendry to go to the terrace together.

She turned around and was surprised to meet head-on with his blue gaze, so much so that for a few seconds she forgot what she was going to say.

“Do you want to-” she started asking, after her neurons synapsed again, but was interrupted by a drunken voice behind them.

“Gendry, my boy!”

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you are enjoying this!


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one where there are some father issues.

Arya turned and saw the Patriarch of the Baratheon family stumbling toward them, his plump face flushed red from the amount of alcohol he had surely consumed, and his huge stomach threatening to blow the buttons off his linen shirt off with every step he took.

No, no…

If anyone could ruin her plans it was Robert Baratheon, since Gendry's good humor used to disappear almost immediately every time he had to interact with his father, especially when he was drunk. In fact, she could already feel him stiffen beside her, so she reached out to take his hand and give it a light squeeze. It was her way of telling him without words that she wasn't going to let him face this alone.

He squeezed back.

“My boy, there you are!” Robert repeated as he got closer. “And with the Little Stark! What a nice surprise… you look so much like your aunt, my dear… so beautiful,” he came closer to her, his hand raised as if to touch her face, but Gendry stepped between them and looked at him sternly.

He had told her several times that he hated that his father compared her to her aunt, that he said things like that they were both very alike to her, or that he would stare at her for a long time... mainly when he was drunk.

“It's repulsive, Arya,” he had told her once, after she accompanied him one night to dinner at his father's house. “It's as if he forgets that you are a completely different person, that you are not her, and that’s completely disgusting.”

Robert had dated Arya's aunt, Lyanna, when they were young and was planning to propose, so to this day he didn’t accept that she had broken up with him after finding out that he was being unfaithful, and that shortly after she had married the recently divorced heir of one of Baratheon Enterprises biggest rival companies.

“It’s not like he would try anything, though, my dad would kill him,” she had replied, and Gendry had shaken his head.

“Still very disturbing,” he said. “I don’t like him looking at my… my best friend like that.”

“Hey,” she had reached to his shoulder as he looked really affected by that. “It’s okay, I’m pretty sure he knows that I’m not my aunt, he’s just taken aback because I look a lot like her… or, at least that's what people say. I still don't see how I can compare myself to how beautiful she is.” Her aunt was one of the most beautiful women she knew, and she was also one of her role models, someone she wished she could be someday.

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Gendry had told her, the intensity of his sight leaving her pinned in place. “You’re gorgeous,” he added and she trembled.

Was he being honest? Maybe he had only said those words to make her feel better. But, here's the thing, he's not one of those people who say things they don't really mean, especially with the specific issue of her and her constant struggle with her self-esteem, which had been constantly attacked by Sansa and Jeyne, her sister’s best friend, during her childhood.

“I- thanks,” she had blushed and looked away to avoid his gaze, so he wouldn’t notice how much his words had affected her. “But, that doesn’t mean that I’m her, and I’m pretty sure that he knows that,” she added, too eager to get back to the topic they were arguing about as to avoid any further comment about her looks.

“I guess so,” he replied and sighed.

Robert's hand lowered slowly after his path was intercepted, and the man stared at both of them in silence for a few moments, before laughing.

“What an amazing sight you two make together!" he announced, laughing at some added comment that had surely been reserved solely for his mind. "I told Ned that it would happen one day, but I didn't mean-” the hiccupped. “I didn't know that the twat wasn't really my son, and I thought he and the other Stark girl would bring us together, how blind I was, you two were there in front of my nose and I didn't see you… you look exactly like we-” he laughed hysterically, and Gendry looked at her, confusion written all over his face.

She shrugged, as if she didn't know what the man meant in his ramblings, when in fact she knew very well what he meant.

Robert thought they were a couple.

“Ah, my boy! My real boy, my only child… far as I know,” Robert laughed again, and a grimace appeared on Gendry's face, one that told her how uncomfortable he was with those words from his father, and the prospect that he might have siblings he was unaware of. “Don’t make the same mistake I did, my child, never do anything that could cause you to lose your Stark girl,” he continued walking, walking past them, and slapping his son on the shoulder.

They both turned around at the same time.

"Where are you going?" Gendry asked his father, who shrugged.

"To a place where I don't interrupt the lovebirds at midnight," he replied, with a wave of his hand. "I think I can steal a nice bottle of brandy from my little brother's library, don't you think? Happy New Year, kids! And, please send my regards to your father, Miss Stark," he added, before they lost sight of him in the crowd.

She looked at Gendry, noticing the furious blush on his cheeks, and couldn’t help but burst into laughter, causing him to look back at her.

Three minutes.

After momentarily directing her gaze to the huge clock that had been placed for the occasion in the window above the elegant lobby stairs, she saw that she had three minutes to get to a place where she could kiss him without causing a show for the rest of the partygoers, so she took his hand in hers with some haste.

"How about we find a better place to watch the fireworks?" she proposed, and a smile spread across his lips, which she supposed came from the fact he didn't like being in crowded places very much.

“I would like that, yes,” he replied, and took her hand to guide her towards one of the balconies in the back of the house, where the rest of the guests were not allowed to venture out... but he was the host's nephew, and Renly was well aware of his hatred of crowds, so he wouldn't complain about him ignoring the rules.

She stole a couple glasses of champagne on their way.

It was now or never.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think about Robert? Did you like his cameo? Hope you liked this chapter! Two more to go.


	4. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shock and delight.

Arya let him guide her to the back of the main hall heading to one of the empty balconies, her gaze traveling around, recognizing the faces that were there, and trying to control her nervousness.

In two minutes, she would kiss him.

She felt her insides quiver with anticipation as she tried to block out that inner voice that told her that she was heading for disaster, that he was not going to be as receptive to that kiss she was thinking of giving him and that she was going to end up with a broken heart.

That couldn't happen, that wasn't going to happen, something inside her told her that he should feel, if not the same, at least something.

Even if it were the least.

To her mind came the moments they shared together, the times he had been there for her unconditionally, and the times he had made her feel loved and appreciated.

He must feel something, not just friendship, right? You don't spend the whole night up to accompany a person you only see as a friend while she studies for her final exams, you don't rush across town to make sure she's okay after she bends her ankle during rehearsal, nor do you put aside the plans you had with your friends to go sit on a couch with her to watch a movie because she had an argument with her mother on the phone and she doesn't want to be alone.

He must feel something, even if it were a little.

She remembers the conversation she had the night before with Daenerys, her cousin's aunt (even though they are the same age), who had invited her to move into her apartment after she was accepted into the King's Landing Academy of the Arts, as a way to assure her parents that the events of the Black and White academy in Braavos would not be repeated, and that she would be well accompanied and protected from any attempt of psychological abuse by a teacher.

Not that it has been necessary at the moment, actually. King's Landing academy has been one of the best experiences of her life, erasing any memories of discomfort that her previous training had left, and putting a lot of support and encouragement to follow her dreams in her life.

“So, you’re gonna do it, aren’t you?” Dani had asked her, and she had nodded. “Cool, it’s been eighty-four years,” she added, quoting one of their favorite movies, before putting a grape in her mouth.

“What do you mean by that?” she had asked, feeling confused because not a week had passed since she asked her what she thought about her feelings for Gendry.

“Arya, I've seen you two glancing at each other with adoration when the other isn’t looking for a year and a half, it was about time one of you did something about it,” she shrugged, and Arya felt her heart beat faster.

“I don’t think he ha-”

“Oh yes, he has,” Dani cut in. “He looks at you like you hold the moon and stars… I mean, the other day I caught him staring at you and he noticed it so he looked away very quickly and excused himself saying that he had to go get something from the kitchen.”

Arya had felt a flame of hope grow inside her.

"Are you sure?" she asked the blonde, who nodded.

"I wouldn't be telling you this if I wasn't sure," she assured her, taking her hand. "Do not hesitate to do what you are going to do in the new year, he is also in love with you, all of us who are around you have realized that." She nodded, but even now, with two minutes to go, she still felt doubt attack her decision.

She tried to control her breathing with every step she took to the balcony.

“There you are!”

They both stopped walking just a few steps away from the double doors that led to the balcony, turning to look at who had spoken, and she found an image she hadn't had in a long time: her cousin, dressed for the occasion, and walking towards them with a huge smile on his face.

“Jon!” she screamed on the top of her lungs and went to hug him after giving Gendry both champagne glasses, too surprised to remember what she was planning to do just a few seconds earlier. “What are you doing here? I thought you were at the wall?”

“I’m glad to see you too, little cousin,” he sarcastically replied, and then looked past her to Gendry and smiled. “Baratheon,” he greeted him, receiving a smile and a nod as response, as both men had been good friends growing up.

Right before he and Arya had become close.

“Targaryen,” Gendry replied, and then looked at the doors of the balcony and sighed. He seemed disappointed about something, but Arya couldn't imagine what it could be.

“You know I'm happy to see you, Jon,” she responded to her cousin's sarcasm. “But you still haven't answered my question… what are you doing here in King's Landing? Weren't you on duty at the wall?”

“That was a white lie,” Jon replied with a huge grin, satisfied with having managed to fool everyone. He seldom managed to do it. “I asked for my resignation, actually,” he added, and Arya was sure that if she had been drinking something at that moment she would have spit it all out.

“Wait, what? Really?” she asked and he nodded. “You’re not kidding me, right?” she continued questioning him and he laughed.

“I’m not kidding, I-” he sighed and looked to the left, there was Dani talking with a girl that Arya only recognized from the photos Jon had sent her. His girlfriend, whom he had met on an expedition to one of the settlements north of the wall, and who had left everything she knew to go live with him. “Ygritte and I have news, and I wanted to tell them in person to my favorite people in the world, who happen to be here in King's Landing.”

“Aren't these your parents?” she teased him, and he laughed.

“We arrived a few hours ago from Dragonstone,” he explained, but before he could say anything else, Gendry spoke.

“I think this is a private conversation," he said. "So, I better go ahead to the balcony and wait for you there," he told her, handing her one of the champagne glasses and saying goodbye to Jon with a nod.

_The balcony…_

_Shit!_

She looked back at her cousin when Gendry disappeared from her field of vision, torn between following her best friend or hearing whatever he had to tell her, which must be important if he had bothered to make the trip there.

She began to bounce with anxiety.

“You and Gendry, eh?” Jon asked, a huge grin on his lips. “Ygritte always tells me that I know nothing, but I’ve been telling Robb and Sansa for months that there’s something between you two and they didn’t believe me,” he added.

Arya didn’t deny it, mostly because of what she was going to do in mere minutes.

“Can’t you tell me the news so you can go and kiss your girlfriend at midnight?” she grunted, and he rose his eyebrows.

“And you can go kiss Gendry, right?”

“Jon!”

“Ok, ok… right,” her favorite cousin said, raising his hands to show his surrender, and changing his expression to a more serious one. “Ygritte is pregnant, she told me a month ago so I decided to ask for my resignation earlier than I thought. I was planning on doing it next year, but I want to be there for her and our baby, and- well… I asked her to marry me on Christmas Eve as well.”

She just stood there gaping at him.

“Any comment?” he asked in an amused tone.

"Yeah, yeah ... I-" her brain finally seemed to catch up with all the information received. "Jon, that's wonderful! Congratulations! Does dad know? Robb? How did your dad and Aunt Lyanna react?" she asked, and went to give him another hug.

“Everyone in Winterfell knows, I called uncle Ned this morning and asked him to share the news with the rest of the family, but I had to tell you and Dani in person,” he responded when they broke their embrace. “Mom and Dad are crazy with excitement, and luckily Egg and Rhae were home and not with their mother in Dorne, so I saved myself a trip.”

“Nice,” she replied with a huge grin, thinking she should go and congratulate her cousins’ fiancée, when she heard it.

_‘Ten, nine, eight…!’_

Oh no, no, no.

Gendry!

Their kiss at midnight.

“I have to-”

_‘Seven, six...!’_

“Run,” her cousin told her, pointing at the doors that led to the balcony. “I will tell Ygritte that we will meet later,” he added with a smirk, and she nodded.

_‘Five, four, three…!’_

She ran as fast as she could to the balcony where he was, trying not to spill the champagne from her glass.

Why had she decided to wear heels?

_‘Two, one…_

_Happy New Year!’_

Screams and cheers rang out behind her as she walked through the double doors and stepped onto the balcony, finding her best friend turning his back on her, watching the fireworks show that started at the moment the clock struck twelve.

“I’m sorry, I-” Arya tried to apologize for being late, and he turned to see her with an expression on his face that she couldn't decipher. "Jon's girlfriend is pregnant and they are getting married," she explained, but he remained silent.

Her plan had been completely ruined, she thought as she saw him raise his eyebrows in surprise at the news, she had not been able to be by his side at midnight and therefore she no longer had an excuse to kiss him.

She wanted to scream out her frustration.

Gendry started walking in her direction holding his champagne glass in his hand, and she couldn't do anything but stare at him, because there was something different in his gaze, something that made her legs shake.

And it wasn't because she had just run a good ten meters in heels.

“He wanted to tell the news to me and Dani in pers-”

She couldn't finish what she was saying as, at that moment, he stood in front of her and placed one of his hands on her nape to draw her to him, so he could capture her lips in a passionate kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprised I got to midnight in this chapter? About the kiss? What do you think is the last chapter about? I will sit here waiting for your comments xD!


	5. One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gendrys POV

“Eureka!” his roommate shouted as he stormed into the living room, wiping the flour from his hands on his apron. “I have the perfect idea of how you can tell Arya that you are madly in love with her.”

“I’m not-” his denial was interrupted by Hot Pie's accusing gaze. “Okay! I admit it, I'm in love with her, can you stop looking at me like that? It's annoying,” he growled the words, hating the moment he told his friend that something was changing in his relationship with Arya.

“Fine,” The chef nodded, taking a seat on the love chair in front of the couch where he was sitting. “Okay, listen to me, I have the best idea of how you can express what you feel for her without risking the friendship that you have in case she doesn't feel the same, and I can't take too long or the buns I'm making will burn,” he repeated, and Gendry nodded, thinking that he had nothing to lose if he listened to his friend's idea.

He and Arry had been friends for a long time, meeting at a time when he was a surly teenager who went through life growling at anyone who got too close to him, and forming a friendship after he defended her from Joffrey's insults.

He must admit that, at first, he didn't see her as more than an unbearable little girl, but then they started talking and he realized that she, unlike many girls from her age and social status, had a working brain in her head.

So, they became friends.

Best friends, actually, despite their age difference.

One of the worst days of his youth, aside from the day he lost his mother, was when the Starks returned to Winterfell, and he had to say goodbye to her.

After that, his life was in chaos, which was defined by the paternity tests that Robert Baratheon applied to his younger children after hearing some gossip about them being not his, and the subsequent divorce that came after he verified that this tattle was true.

He then became the sole heir to one of the most important companies in Westeros, and on his shoulders fell responsibilities that he did not have in mind for himself, nor did he want. He had to put aside for a time his desire to dedicate himself to photography and film production to follow his father's whim for him to study administration, but it was thanks to the support of Arya and his cousin Shireen that he was able to face his father and tell him that he was going to study what he wanted.

And then he found out what Arya had to endure while studying at the Black and White Academy, and how this experience almost made her give up dancing, and he wanted to travel to Braavos to assassinate those teachers who had destroyed her dream.

His first thought when he saw her again was that she was gorgeous, but he quickly buried that thought when he realized that it was wrong, that she was his best friend and therefore he could not see her with eyes of desire.

But, then she started her classes at the academy, and they began to see each other every day, and as they got closer he became aware of small details that eventually led him to realize that he had fallen in love with his best friend.

He was screwed.

For a long time, he tried to hide his feelings, constantly reminding himself that he did not want to lose her friendship for an unrequited love. But he had already reached the point where his infatuation with her was so great that it came out through his eyes, which many people had begun to notice (his roommate, for example), and he no longer had the strength to deny it.

“Here’s the plan,” Hot Pie spoke. “Taking advantage of the festivities approaching, you can kiss her at midnight on New Year’s Eve, and see what her reaction is. If it’s positive, you can finally confess to her what you feel, and if not, you can simply say that you did it so as not to skip tradition.”

Gendry made a face. It was a very good plan indeed, but there was only one complication, one that made it impossible.

“I think she will be traveling to Winterfell for the holidays,” he said, and his roommate shook his head.

“She came with some of her classmates to the restaurant a few nights ago,” he told him. “They were talking about a workshop that a certain Professor Forel was going to do in the first days of January, and she said that she was going to stay in King's Landing during the holidays to be able to attend.”

Hope began to grow inside Gendry.

“I can invite her to spend New Year's Eve here in the apartment with me, and you can make some nice dinner for us before you go to your parents’,” his mind began to plot. “You can do it, right?”

“As Gendrya's number one shipper I would be honored,” his friend replied, before getting up and returning to the kitchen to check on his buns.

Gendry yelled at him to stop calling them that, he's never liked those cheesy ship names, and received only laughter in response. It was the perfect plan, there was no flaw in it. Except, of course, that she wanted to go to the stupid party his uncle was throwing for New Years’ Eve.

"You can still kiss her at midnight," his roommate told him when he informed him of the change of plans. "Actually, you have a better reason to do it this way because everyone around you is going to be making out, so you two can't be left out."

"And what if she finds someone else to kiss?" he asked, his insecurity making an appearance.

“She won’t,” Hot Pie assured him.

He wasn’t so sure about that.

For that reason, when they were at the party and Ned _fucking_ Dayne (of all people) had had the audacity of proposing her to be together at midnight, he had felt all his hopes of being able to continue with his plan sink.

That was, until she rejected him.

Surprised, he watched as she said goodbye to her friend and only managed to respond when it was his turn with a nod, his mind still processing what had just happened.

He thought she liked Ned Dayne, she had spent weeks just talking about him when they had met, why had she told him to find another person? And more importantly, why was she still next to him when she could have gone have fun with anyone else? He didn't understand anything, but was satisfied with his luck. But the blonde wasn’t the only one to interrupt them.

First, it had been his father… and, by all the gods, he almost hit him in the face when he tried to touch Arya.

He’s always found the way he looked at his best friend very creepy. Couldn't Robert Baratheon understand that she was not by any means his first love? Jon's mother? Arya was her own person, and she didn't deserve his weird looks and comments.

He almost had a stroke when his father called them lovebirds. Truly. But, luckily, it seemed Arya hadn’t noticed he was talking about them.

Then, it was the recently mentioned Jon, Arya's cousin, who arrived with important news to tell. So, after looking up at the clock and noticing that there was only a little over one minute to go before the countdown started, he realized that there was no way he and Arya could be on the balcony together before midnight, and so he accepted his defeat.

“I think this is a private conversation," he told the cousins, hoping his smile was convincing enough. "So, I better go ahead to the balcony and wait for you there," he added looking at Arya, handing her one of the champagne glasses before nodding in Jon’s direction, and turning around to go to the place where he thought he was going to finally be able to kiss her.

How naïve he had been.

As he had expected, the balcony was completely uninhabited, so he took a drink from his glass and walked up to lean on the railing, gazing out at the city in front of him as he tried to find an alternate path to his plan since the kiss at midnight, in his opinion, was completely out of the question.

He sighed.

What should he do now? Tell her what he felt when she walked through those doors (and let it be what the gods wanted), or continue to hide his feelings even if they were eating at him? He closed his eyes, and then his father's words echoed in his head: “Never do anything that could cause you to lose your Stark girl,” he repeated to himself, groaning when he heard people starting to do the countdown.

He didn’t want to lose Arya, of course, but he didn’t know which one of the options would make him lose her. What if he told her how he felt and it turns out that she doesn't feel the same? Would he lose her then? Or, what if he didn't tell her and the secret pushed them further and further apart? Would he lose her anyway? Hell, he didn't want to lose her, that was all he knew.

Five, four, three…

This was a stupid, _stupid_ plan.

Two, one…

“Happy new year!” people screamed inside the house, but he didn't turn to look behind him until he heard her speak.

“I’m sorry, I-” she said, and he noticed that she was completely flustered and out of breath, as if she had run to get there in time. "Jon's girlfriend is pregnant and they are getting married," she continued, and he looked at her in surprise because he did not think that the other man was planning to leave the military life and settle down soon. But his mind was too busy with other matters for the news to matter too much to him.

Had she really run to be there with him at midnight? She wanted to be with him at midnight? What for? Then, it hit him.

 _Oh_.

Gendry started walking in her direction holding his champagne glass in his hand, his heart racing. She rejected Ned Dayne, but wanted to be with him alone at midnight, and ran who knows how many meters with heels to do it. She wanted this as much as he did, didn’t she? She had to… there was no other explanation.

She wanted this.

Arya wanted him.

“He wanted to tell the news to me and Dani in pers-”

He silenced her words with his lips on hers, praying to the gods new and old that he hadn't been wrong to read the signs, fearing the worst when she did not respond to his kiss at first, but filling up with a feeling of euphoria that he hadn’t felt before when he felt that she finally reacted by returning the kiss, and taking her free hand to grab his shoulder.

"Arya," he spoke her name on a sigh when their lips parted, and then smiled when she stretched her neck and pulled him towards her to bring their lips back together.

Was he dreaming?

If that was the case, please don't wake him up.

“I had a perfect plan to kiss you at midnight,” she confessed when her lips parted again, resting her forehead against his. “and you had to come and spoil it.”

“Well, I had to do something, you were taking way too long,” he teased, his free hand descending down her spine to settle on her lower back, drawing her closer to him.

They chuckled.

“Idiot,” Arya sighed, and took her hand to his face, making him look at her eyes. “Why did you kiss me?” she asked, and he was about to ask her if it wasn't obvious, but then he noticed in her eyes that she needed him to say it, that she needed him to confirm with words what he had told her a moment ago with actions.

“Because I’m in love with you,” he said the words that had been eating at him for months, feeling relieved to finally let them out. “Have been for a while, but was afraid to tell you.”

She sighed, relieved.

“I’m in love with you too,” she replied, caressing his cheek. “And, like you, I too was afraid to tell you… but, I’m not afraid anymore.” She smiled, and a smile automatically formed on his lips too.

“So, what now?” he asked, not daring to take a step away from her. It felt so good to have her in his arms.

"Now," she gave him a quick kiss. “We keep doing this here for a bit longer, and then we'll have our drinks, and we'll go congratulate my cousin and his fiancée before sneaking off to finish the party at another place... what do you think?”

“And after that?” he had to ask and she shrugged.

“Then, we will continue to show our best friend how much we love them every day for the next thousand years. What do you think?”

Gendry laughed.

“I think it sounds like a solid plan, I'm in,” he replied, and sealed these words with another kiss that left them both breathless. “Happy New Year, Arry.”

“Happy New Year, Gen,” she answered, and their lips met once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, this is it! Hope you all enjoyed this little story I wrote... it was a crazy experience to do this five chapters in these last days. Again, thank you Weltverbessererin for being my beta in this, and Happy New Year, everyone!


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